


Reach Out and Touch Somebody

by clairxdexlune



Category: Persona 2, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Character Study, Family Issues, Gen, M/M, all the main characters are mentioned but only briefly, lots of headcanons about Akira's backstory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2019-01-01 02:27:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12146658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clairxdexlune/pseuds/clairxdexlune
Summary: "Everything starts and ends with family."Written for the Persona 5 Kink Meme





	Reach Out and Touch Somebody

**Author's Note:**

> Persona 5 spoilers up until the end of the seventh palace

"Everything starts and ends with family."  
  
Those were the words hanging on his mother's wall. It was a gift from a sibling, apparently, from when she first fell ill. And now, as they gathered around the dying woman's bed, a thirteen year old Akira Kurusu wished he could cry. Or at least feel sorrow. His aunt who he had only just met was sobbing into his shoulder, and her husband was lightly hitting the bedside table, showing despair the only way he had learned how. She was gone by now, or at least asleep for the last time. And she didn't even know Akira was there.  
  
He had found her awhile ago. She lived in the same house they lived in when he was a baby. And he still had her last name. When he found out she had terminal cancer, he did cry, but a dark part of his heart mocked him, calling her illness poetic justice for his abandonment. He cried even harder at how horrible of person he would have to be to think that. His father came up to ask him if he was alright. He said he got into a fight at school again.

* * *

Jun Kashihara had adopted him after only six months in the system. In that regard, he was lucky. Immensely lucky. It almost wasn't fair to dwell on it. Jun lived in a modest home filled with flowers, as if Akira didn't already feel as if he was being rescued by a prince. He also lived with another man, Tatsuya Suou, who he had later learned was his boyfriend. It took him a bit to discover that fact, mostly because it seemed like it took them a while to discover that fact (Jun had "memory problems" according to Tatsuya). But once he did he found nothing unusual about it. Until he heard his birth mother wouldn't speak to a boy "raised by homosexuals". Until he got questioned by the school for talking about his "dads". Until society told him the things that saved him and brought him joy were worse than the things that almost destroyed him.

* * *

Akira asked a lot of questions. "Why can't I say bad words?" "How are babies born?" "What happens when you die?" "Is dad going to get killed by criminals at work?" "Are the countries on the news going to attack us?"  
  
"Quit watching the news in front of him, Jun," Tatsuya sighed, looking up from his novel.  
  
"I can't just keep the news off every time he comes in."  
  
"An eight year old doesn't need to know about war!"  
  
"Are you two fighting?" Both their expressions softened almost immediately.  
  
"N-no!" Jun said too quickly. "We just want to know if what's on the TV scares you."  
  
Akira put a finger to chin to think about it. Finally he decided on an answer. "Nope. I think it's interesting! Sometimes I'll play 'politician' with my toys!"  
  
Jun put a hand to his heart. "How sweet! Tell me how you play that!"  
  
Akira smiled brightly. "I'm the leader of Japan and my toys are the citizens! Sometimes I get too corrupt though and want nuclear bombs, so the toys have to make a 'coup d'etat'!"  
  
Tatsuya and Jun exchanged concerned looks, and Jun looked down to the floor. "Maybe I'll keep the TV off more..."

* * *

Akira thought only about Tatsuya and Jun as he watched his mother die. It felt terrible, but as he though about the parts of his childhood he ignored, he couldn't find a mother. Only a woman who cared more about society's view of her than her son. Who effectively abandoned him twice. Death was cruel, but so was she. And so was he. That was called family resemblance. As the rest of his family cried and grieved, he slipped away.  
  
"I'm sure she felt so blessed to have you come here," a cousin said to him on his way out. Little did she understand his mother hadn't been lucid for days.

* * *

The night Akira was arrested, Jun cried. Akira didn't see him cry, but he knew. He had always been a bad kid. Always talking back to teachers, fighting, asking too many questions. He hated that his parents had to deal with it, but not speaking his mind made him physically ill. Letting people get pushed around made him physically.  
  
"You did the right thing," Tatsuya whispered to him on the way out of his meeting with the principal.  
  
"We'll find a better school for you," Jun assured, squeezing his shoulders.  
  
Maybe he had done the right thing, but that didn't mean the world would reward him. He had learned in his sixteen years that the world loved to side with a rapist on the street with police connections. Tatsuya had found a great school in Tokyo. Jun had found a man in Tokyo who owed him a favor (everyone seemed to owe Jun a favor). Things were looking up because he would leave them alone. They tried to tell him how hard it was to let him go, but he knew the truth. He was so easy to get rid of.

* * *

Entering Tokyo fulfilled everything he had believed about himself. His guardian didn't want him around, the rumors of his reputation preceded him, and he was a trapped in the prison of his own mind. It was shaping up to be everything he had imagined, but then something changed. Hands started reaching out to him. Calloused athlete's hands. Delicate, feminine hands. Hands stained with paint or ink. Hands pale from staying inside or staying hidden away like a jewel. Sometimes gloves. Sometimes paws. He had found himself caught in the middle of national phenomenon, yet all he could see was the people directly around him.  
  
Akira began to notice how his confidants acted around the people they loved. He saw Ryuji's mother barge in on their study session  
to offer up warm cookies. Ryuji blushed and crossed his arms, but never complained when his mother leaned down to kiss his head. He saw Ann talking with her parents over Skype before bed as they got ready for their day. She wiped her eyes as she glanced at the far away date on her calendar that featured three small stick figures draw on it. He saw Yusuke sit with his third cup of coffee under his mother's portrait. If he didn't think Akira was around, he would ask her advice and share with her their trials as Phantom Thieves. He saw Makoto reading what appeared to be a riveting police novel in the Shujin Library. Upon closer inspection, it was the old journal of an Officer Niijima, and it was very well read. He saw Futaba and Sojiro hold each other tightly on cold nights at the Kanda Cathedral, sharing stories about her mother. Sometimes Morgana came along to reflect on what it meant to have a family. He held Haru's hand as she sobbed about the horrors of her father's death. And of his life.  
  
One evening, as he was closing up Leblanc, Akechi let a story about his life in foster care slip. He must have expected Akira not to care as he got up to leave immediately after, but instead, he pulled a a chair next to him and started talking about his birth mother. Akechi was taken aback at his openness, but Akira was just happy to have someone who understood. Even if said person was planning to kill him. Akechi talked for a while about his time in the system, his mother's death, and Akira was expecting the story to end with finding something out about his adoptive parents. So he could finally know what irresponsible parent's kid was going to kill someone. But the story didn't end that way. It ended with him talking about how he finally lived alone, picking up his jacket, and leaving the shop. Akira was left sitting at the counter feeling guilty for not calling his parents enough.  
  
When he finally did call them again, they told him they really did miss him, and that time, he actually believed it. It was amazing how much better he understood them when he believed he was loved.

* * *

Akira's stomach churned as Shido's cognitive Akechi pointed the gun at them. Not because of the gun in his face. He was used to that by now. His stomach churned at this manifestation of everything Shido believed Akechi was. He claimed to be a puppet that would die for his captain, and it made Akira sick in the same way it made him sick when he was seven and his teachers shushed him and said "That's not how we do it in our classroom." He looked to Akechi's eyes, but they were locked onto the eyes of his cognitive self. Akira wondered if he saw his father's eyes. For a brief moment Akechi did glance at him with a knowing gaze. Like he had a plan. And to Akira's salvation and sorrow he did.  
  
As Akira found himself with his ear pressed to the barrier Akechi had lowered, he heard gunshots, the guttural whines of shadows, and a final quiet plea to expose Shido and change his heart. It all happened in a few moments, but in those moments, he was a thirteen year old at his mother's deathbed again, frantic and horrified and unable to cry.  
  
Later, as he brought a shaky finger to the MetaNav to take his teammates home, he shut his eyes tightly, vividly seeing the self-congratulatory embroidery from three years ago:  
  
"Everything starts and ends with family."

**Author's Note:**

> link on the kink meme: https://personakinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/993.html?thread=606689#cmt606689
> 
> The story behind this is that my mother and I were reflecting on how the parents who hang inspirational quotes about how much they love their family have a tendency to be the worst at actually parenting, haha. I don't think it's always true, but in my experience it seems to be.
> 
> Basically this is a personal musing/venting turned into a character study. I don't know if it makes much sense, but I hope it was at least enjoyable to read! (Also I'm almost done fixing up the next chapter of The Puppet Rebel, so that should be posted in the next couple of days.)


End file.
